Constructive Criticism of Dry Stone Walls in Canada
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Here we provide some feedback on walls with problems that we have encountered. We hope by pointing out areas of concern, it will help you as Wallers in your future projects and not have similar issues.

Pity they didn't build a thick structural wall of real stone, constructed in the proper 'dry laid tradition' , which is a technique has worked perfectly in Canada for many years, and in other parts of the world for thousands of years.

It would have looked better for one thing, and would have withstood the 'dampness' of the past few days better than slabs of concrete balanced on top of each other in a row.

One of the first thing that jumps out here is the lack of a uniform finished top. There was an obvious attempt made with the wall that has become lost with the piling/pouring of smaller stones on the top detracting from the overall appearance.
You can also see several bulges along the length which could be from not using batter frames or proper foundation. It appears that there is no attempt made with the batter itself and the stones long the wall face seem to be haphazard in their placing as their faces are every which way. A random looking wall can be easily achieved following the proper building techniques.
Properly built, this wall could have better complemented the beautiful surrondings. 		      
Perhaps the best way to address this "wall" (I use the term loosely even though I am told it was intended as a wall) is the lack of understanding of technique or appreciation of the time, effort and skill required to build a Dry Stone Wall. What could have been a very attractive feature given the beach setting is nothing more than a detraction.

The setting for these walls is stunning. An effort has been made but unfortunately the technique is not well understood. The batter for the wall is incorrect, the faces of the stones do not follow the batter line, there are numerous running joints and the cheekends have no definition. You want to ensure the shape and line of your walls is crisp. Using string lines will allow this. The main issue is the lack of understanding of the technique needed to build a dry stone wall. 		      
*SIGH* What could have been a beautiful dry stone wall over this drain is instead concrete with painted on stones. *shudder*
      
The most obvious item here is the cheekend. Nothing on the end dovetails together as it should. Looking down the length of the wall you can see that the wall has sunk in the center in one obvious area. It could be that the hearting was insufficient in this area or that the foundation area is prone to retaining water. The face of the wall is quite rough without a noticeable batter being followed. Last, the wall itself is rather wide for its height and length. The builder was not following the usual dimensions for a dry stone wall when constructing this.

This is an obivious attempt at a proper Dry Stone Wall. However, as we can see it has partially collapsed. Besides the fact that the straightness of the wall is an issue, the most telling item is the fact the wall has little or no batter. We can also see along the line of the wall that the stone faces themselves are not following the batter line. 		      
The setting for this wall is quite nice. We can see the lack of understanding of the face of the stones and batter. The top is random and the wall is rather wide. An obvious effort was made and had the person(s) understood the technique better, a stunning wall would grace the property. This perhaps highlights the fact that with a dry stone wall, you can take it down easily and redo it. Practice makes us all better wallers.